What's new

Who are the top "influencers" in the NRS community? Podcast Discussion.

Who are the top 11 "influencers" in the NRS community?


  • Total voters
    93

Shock

Administrator
Premium Supporter
I wouldn’t call it NRS communty I’d call it MK community where everything started
only one in this community comes close to @Check this guy has dedicated his life to MK and in the past years Injustice.
No one has broken each character more than Check I’m surprised no one has even mentioned him. Back in the day when the internet wasn’t as it is now he came up with great finds. A lot of those names are just celebrities who do shit for their own benefit nowadays it’s all about who has the most views. I have mad respect for players like @REO and @Tom Brady who have done a lot for the community as well

Another name that comes to mind as a big influence is @Konqrr before YouTube he was already providing combo videos on his own site Konqrr.net this guy brought a lot of traffic to the forums

If we’d have a hall of fame Check and Konqrr should be there
It has to be taken into consideration that the vast majority of the MK community is more the "NRS community" era, as in, MK9, MKX, Injustice 1 & 2. Anything before that is similar to SF4 '09ers. I understand this comes off a bit insulting to them but anything that happened from the arcade era through MKDC is lost upon a number of people. That's why players like us remind as many people as we can, that the MK community wasn't spontaneous generation via MK9. That mentality actually is legitimately insulting to everything we did before it. Part of the reason why we merged the ultimatemk.com forums with TYM was to preserve the activity of the site on a live forum. For example, a lot of member join dates are years before TYM was created. It's important to many that something they belong to has a history or legacy, but others feel like nothing matters than what is happening now. Does that matter? I guess, until now is no longer now.

As of right now, the closest to MK/NRS exclusive personality who is the most hype and far reaching to me, is Kitana Prime.
 

Gerchap

Noob
It has to be taken into consideration that the vast majority of the MK community is more the "NRS community" era, as in, MK9, MKX, Injustice 1 & 2. Anything before that is similar to SF4 '09ers. I understand this comes off a bit insulting to them but anything that happened from the arcade era through MKDC is lost upon a number of people. That's why players like us remind as many people as we can, that the MK community wasn't spontaneous generation via MK9. That mentality actually is legitimately insulting to everything we did before it. Part of the reason why we merged the ultimatemk.com forums with TYM was to preserve the activity of the site on a live forum. For example, a lot of member join dates are years before TYM was created. It's important to many that something they belong to has a history or legacy, but others feel like nothing matters than what is happening now. Does that matter? I guess, until now is no longer now.

As of right now, the closest to MK/NRS exclusive personality who is the most hype and far reaching to me, is Kitana Prime.
Your post makes a lot of sense. That’s why guys like You, @STORMS myself and a few others must keep that part of the community alive or try to bring it back to the scene, that’s why the mentions of old school players is very important. There’s a goal my friend I’ll tell you eventually.
 

ProudDisciple

Average at Best
@Shock You make very valid points that can be applied to many things in life. It’s similar to the whole notion of respecting your elders and/or heritage. For example, the whole idea behind embracing your roots or where you come from is based how we are brought up. Problem is that with time if we aren’t consistently exposed to or around this heritage we lose sight of it.

I grew up playing MK 1, 2, 3, UMK3 and MK4 in the arcades but was never exposed to this scene during that time. Over time I was drawn into MK9 due to my exposure to the tournament scene through videos and forums.

For me it isn’t that I don’t value the past but because I didn’t experience it in the same way, it is difficult to vouch for it in the same way as someone that personally live it.
 

M2Dave

Zoning Master
It has to be taken into consideration that the vast majority of the MK community is more the "NRS community" era, as in, MK9, MKX, Injustice 1 & 2. Anything before that is similar to SF4 '09ers. I understand this comes off a bit insulting to them but anything that happened from the arcade era through MKDC is lost upon a number of people.
I am from the Mortal Kombat 9 era even though I played all the 3D Mortal Kombat games. I take no offense in being labeled the equivalent of a "Street Fighter 4 '09er" so I hope you take no offense in the following question as ignorant as the question may be. Was the scene prior to Mortal Kombat 9 not limited to a dozen offline players from New York once the glory days of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 days were long finished? I ask this question not to diminish what you and many others did for the early stages of the Mortal Kombat community yet to argue that the modern scene is based on Mortal Kombat 9, if not Mortal Kombat Deception to be precise. I presume the equivalence is kind of how the modern Street Fighter 5 scene is based on the Street Fighter 4 scene from 2009, and not any prior scenes (i.e., Super Turbo or Third Strike).
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
I am from the Mortal Kombat 9 era even though I played all the 3D Mortal Kombat games. I take no offense in being labeled the equivalent of a "Street Fighter 4 '09er" so I hope you take no offense in the following question as ignorant as the question may be. Was the scene prior to Mortal Kombat 9 not limited to a dozen offline players from New York once the glory days of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 days were long finished? I ask this question not to diminish what you and many others did for the early stages of the Mortal Kombat community yet to argue that the modern scene is based on Mortal Kombat 9, if not Mortal Kombat Deception to be precise. I presume the equivalence is kind of how the modern Street Fighter 5 scene is based on the Street Fighter 4 scene from 2009, and not any prior scenes (i.e., Super Turbo or Third Strike).
This has always been an issue with the NRS community though. Even back in the MK9 days. Even the IDEA that there were people that kept MK alive before MK9 was scoffed at and those people were said to be “living in the past”. Like, how can you be that ungrateful and disrespectful to not even acknowledge the efforts of those who came before you? There’s this weird mentality that persists in this scene. That if you don’t place in the current games, what you say is dismissible. Anything you’ve done is irrelevant. From how you used to do in those games, to what you did for the community. Not only that, there were a lot of well known players that diminished the importance of these people. Saying that without them MK9 would have been in the same place it was from the very beginning. This is demonstrably false. The new players to the FGC via MK9 had no idea how to get their game at an event, that you had to supply your own equipment at the time, that it was a community driven effort, etc. People forget that MK wasn’t in the main game lineup at FGC events for probably over a decade, not even too sure myself. Aside from some UMK3 events that were, most of the MK tournaments at majors were side games. Without the people who already had a good report with TO’s, and since at the time NRS wasn’t too involved in the tournament scene yet, MK9 would have had a very rough start (. So much so that who knows how it would have turned out. All the iconic moments from MK9 may have not happened, but that’s getting kinda into some butterfly effect shit.

Anyway, that mentality still exists today, just less prevalent. But instead of scoffing at the idea, it’s ignored completely. This is why I want the history documented. That way it cannot be ignored, or at least, those who are interested in the history will be able to find it easily. I’m not asking for parades to be thrown to honor these people, just some acknowledgment. Literally that’s it.
 

Shock

Administrator
Premium Supporter
I am from the Mortal Kombat 9 era even though I played all the 3D Mortal Kombat games. I take no offense in being labeled the equivalent of a "Street Fighter 4 '09er" so I hope you take no offense in the following question as ignorant as the question may be. Was the scene prior to Mortal Kombat 9 not limited to a dozen offline players from New York once the glory days of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 days were long finished? I ask this question not to diminish what you and many others did for the early stages of the Mortal Kombat community yet to argue that the modern scene is based on Mortal Kombat 9, if not Mortal Kombat Deception to be precise. I presume the equivalence is kind of how the modern Street Fighter 5 scene is based on the Street Fighter 4 scene from 2009, and not any prior scenes (i.e., Super Turbo or Third Strike).
It's not ignorant at all, and really not far off from that, as all post 2011 NRS games derive their momentum from the previous game directly, build their own, and repeat. When I really get to talk to people in person about this stuff, it's clear that I have a good idea as to what made MK9's success possible, but also why I feel the NY/NJ scene was super important to that. It often comes off as credit stealing so I feel it needs to be reiterated.

The FGC MK scene at the time, before MK9, was limited mostly to the North East not because it was a handful of guys who liked playing the old games and didn't run anything else (not saying this is what you mean), it's because the 3D era games never took off, due to no support from its own scene. Had players shown up for them as they were released, there would have been a more obvious build to MK9 from the last breaths of the 2D games (which even had a 2 year gap between their death and their resurgence at FGC events) and not what seems like "there was nothing" to players who weren't interested in anything that came before it.

I personally only ever saw a couple tournaments for MKDA (I played in one!) and one for MKD, and I was at a lot of events where they could have happened and were advertised. I never heard about them popping up anywhere else except for a couple for MKDA. There was obviously a lot of online activity for some of those games but it would go largely unnoticed by the FGC, and the FGC's opinion is what most people feel matters. Maybe the MK community it doesn't, and that's why it's such a tough relationship. Online play didn't carry the weight of live events, where you saw MvC2 dominate for nearly 10 years.

Tournaments in general weren't that big then either but we still fought for a presence even though you could have an event where one TO wants it, and another didn't. There was a tournament in CT that I drove 3 hours to with my equipment for UMK3 at the behest of someone affiliated with the event, and he said "You gotta show up, I'll get you in, but I can't promise they'll give you so much as a table and chairs" but I did, and we had like 16 players. For a while, several of them were chilling in the lobby or standing by my TV, sticks, and 360, which were all on the floor. Think about how Evo has rules for side games, now imagine that being at an event with a couple hundred people, in 2007.

By 2010, UMK.com had like 1200 members and 25K posts built off almost entirely old school players, and a handful of 3D players who spilled over. We could never draw much from them, and we were the ones pushing tournaments, and had there been tournaments for the new games, it'd make sense that MK9 would be appealing, but the interest came out of no where, bridging basically every part of the community. We were outright rejected at times by people who could really have made something happen, basically saying "No one cares about tournaments" but we still did, so we kept running the old games, and growing the scene until the link was formed with MK9. The difference with MK9 and the 3D MKs, was people were willing to travel for it, and I feel another factor was because it truly was that much better than the 3D games merely on the surface.

So we kept running the old ones, and adding more, adopted KI, gaining more players, etc. People were talking about it more and more, TOs knew about it, and by 2010 were invited to run events elswhere, classic MK was getting stream time at tournaments, and not really so much a side game anymore like say, Super Turbo. It's really hard to build a scene from scratch, let alone when the game was dead to begin with, and even people in the scene itself were against the idea of building it back up. Many games started having online communities and multiple games within their franchises, but they still all had FGC scenes to speak of, except us. I do have to say that XBLA UMK3 definitely bolstered interest for at least talking about the game, and we siphoned off some players from that. Our new games never saw the light of day, even with baked in netplay, and it is the belief of many of us who were around and pushing people to come out for MK, that MK9 would have come and gone like a lot of games do.

When you look at games that don't have the presence of say, capcom, and again this is 15 years ago, but have a contiguous presence game to game, they might not gain much momentum but that's still more than we could say. Admittedly, before 2011 there'd have been zero MK games being played at tournaments if not for the North East, but shortly before MK9, we saw other areas popping up, especially in Ohio. It was all fueled by the perceived interest on forums. Then MK9 was announced and teased, and I never saw interest for an MK game like that. Compare to MKDC, which didn't even exist in the eyes of the FGC. There was still no direct support from NRS to be heard of yet, so the interest in MK9 was organic, but didn't mean people were going to come out for it. We ran our first MKDC tournaments ever at the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011, because of MK9's hype so we knew something was going to happen.

A major catalyst for MK9 competition and visibility, in my opinion, was VSM in NY. I think it really brought out the competitive spirit of the lone MK players who then started forming their gaming groups, and gave them something to beat because it was organized, and had a local pool of talented players, many of which would go on to win multiple tournaments and fill up the top 8s of tournaments across the country. I could be wrong, but that was run by the guys who were keeping MK games alive during the dry spell. Then we saw players, streams and locals from literally everywhere, and those players showing up at events no where near their area. I feel this way because we already had something going for almost 10 years that was self-sustaining since it was very small comparatively.

But most importantly, I also think the combination of @Tom Brady, who really pressured NRS into getting players out to test MK9 (which was internally referred to as a "waste of time and money"/"they'll leak our secrets"), and working with companies like PDP, continuing their relationship with Prima, being at Evo, MLG (I don't know who contacts whom first for any of this, ie chicken and the egg but it's all important) very early on was the perfect recipe for creating the competitive scene, and motivating players to come out. I mean the first official MK stick was made for MK9.

Knowing what I know, it's confusing for a cash cow to do something that doesn't really make you money, in fact, you are really just spending money to advertise to people who already buy your game when you do pot bonuses. It's a thank you in essence, to a tiny tiny part of your audience that is passionate about your work. That's great and all, and some players have truly made a name for themselves, but making the move to do big, visible to the public tournaments doesn't seem like it was in their wheelhouse to me, and wouldn't have been without direct communication with the scene. Again It's hard to say, but I don't know why would they suddenly be interested in getting involved these competitive events when they could just do the normal routine of releasing games for general consumption, especially for a company that doesn't even like when characters get leaked or invite the deep players in and pull back the curtain.

If any credit is deserved for MK9's competitive success, it's @Tom Brady and the guys at NRS like Paulo and Hector who bridged the gap. After MK9 I stepped back and have watched the scene evolve and sometimes mutate.
 
Last edited:

M2Dave

Zoning Master
Anyway, that mentality still exists today, just less prevalent. But instead of scoffing at the idea, it’s ignored completely. This is why I want the history documented. That way it cannot be ignored, or at least, those who are interested in the history will be able to find it easily. I’m not asking for parades to be thrown to honor these people, just some acknowledgment. Literally that’s it.
I understand your point and support the recounting of the history as well as the acknowledgement of players. My only criticism is that the games, especially Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 but Mortal Kombat 9 to a lesser extent too, are often romanticized during storytelling. Neither game has aged well. In fact, both games are awful by today's fighting game standards. I can attest to Mortal Kombat 9 more so than Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for obvious reasons. I had rather play Mortal Kombat X, a game that I am not particularly very fond of, than Mortal Kombat 9, a game that favors my gameplay style, because the latter game's balance is atrocious and the glitches and bugs are ubiquitous. On the other hand, I get the impression that most Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 players would not choose Mortal Kombat X, or any other modern NRS fighting game for that matter, over their old game. Juggs, not to put you on the spot, but you are the prime example of this behavior. Every time a new NRS fighting game is released, you are excited and talk about playing competitively. A couple of months later, your interest tends to fade and you talk about how no fighting game will ever be as good as Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was.

Knowing what I know, it's confusing for a cash cow to do something that doesn't really make you money, in fact, you are really just spending money to advertise to people who already buy your game when you do pot bonuses. It's a thank you in essence, to a tiny tiny part of your audience that is passionate about your work. That's great and all, and some players have truly made a name for themselves, but making the move to do big, visible to the public tournaments doesn't seem like it was in their wheelhouse to me, and wouldn't have been without direct communication with the scene. Again It's hard to say, but I don't know why would they suddenly be interested in getting involved these competitive events when they could just do the normal routine of releasing games for general consumption, especially for a company that doesn't even like when characters get leaked or invite the deep players in and pull back the curtain.
I agree that competitive players only represent a tiny fraction of the overall fan base. However, they have two important things that forces NRS to listen to them. First, they have the loudest voices on the Internet. Second, they have lots of followers, subscribers, and viewers, to which they advertise the games by discussing and streaming the games. Any business, including NRS, loves free advertising.

In addition to the competitive players, the "influencers", to use NRS's word, are another yet arguably more important factor. Reviewers and content creators such as Max and Angry Joe have millions of YouTube subscribers. Max and Angry Joe are no competitive players, but they are generally well-informed and care more about the gameplay than the average casual gamer. I have no research or data to make this claim, but I would reasonably presume that having people with such a large following criticize any game excessively would not be considered good for business. NRS apparently knows so too. They would not host events such as this one otherwise.
 

Shock

Administrator
Premium Supporter
I understand your point and support the recounting of the history as well as the acknowledgement of players. My only criticism is that the games, especially Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 but Mortal Kombat 9 to a lesser extent too, are often romanticized during storytelling. Neither game has aged well. In fact, both games are awful by today's fighting game standards. I can attest to Mortal Kombat 9 more so than Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for obvious reasons. I had rather play Mortal Kombat X, a game that I am not particularly very fond of, than Mortal Kombat 9, a game that favors my gameplay style, because the latter game's balance is atrocious and the glitches and bugs are ubiquitous. On the other hand, I get the impression that most Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 players would not choose Mortal Kombat X, or any other modern NRS fighting game for that matter, over their old game. Juggs, not to put you on the spot, but you are the prime example of this behavior. Every time a new NRS fighting game is released, you are excited and talk about playing competitively. A couple of months later, your interest tends to fade and you talk about how no fighting game will ever be as good as Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was.



I agree that competitive players only represent a tiny fraction of the overall fan base. However, they have two important things that forces NRS to listen to them. First, they have the loudest voices on the Internet. Second, they have lots of followers, subscribers, and viewers, to which they advertise the games by discussing and streaming the games. Any business, including NRS, loves free advertising.

In addition to the competitive players, the "influencers", to use NRS's word, are another yet arguably more important factor. Reviewers and content creators such as Max and Angry Joe have millions of YouTube subscribers. Max and Angry Joe are no competitive players, but they are generally well-informed and care more about the gameplay than the average casual gamer. I have no research or data to make this claim, but I would reasonably presume that having people with such a large following criticize any game excessively would not be considered good for business. NRS apparently knows so too. They would not host events such as this one otherwise.
Totally on the money, internet personalities like Max are a great resource because they reach a much more generalized, casual audience, and Eleague is a no-brainer too.
 

Shock

Administrator
Premium Supporter
One other thing though, and I know this is getting off topic, but as it pertains to UMK3 being romanticized. I wouldn't say it hasn't aged well, it's just that it is VERY old in general and that is a turn off to some. You show random people high level UMK3 and it's mindblowing to them. There are 2, maybe 3 components of the UMK3 gameplay, and 2D in general, that absolutely make them rough, but when it comes to character control, UMK3 is still to this day, better than any other MK game, and I say that without hyperbole. You have the most freedom to move in that game with the most sensible dashing mechanic and limitations applied on it. If I'd add one universal mechanic to it, it would be a back dash. Sub-zero's ice clone acts sort of like one, or a short jump, and it's super useful for that alone.

The overall shallowness of the 2D gameplay is really what hurts them the most, and this makes a couple of those basic aspects hard to deal with. This is part of the reason why we started hacking the games, because some of us acknowledge that the simplicity can make them feel dated and there's no room to grow, but I think this applies way more to MKII. Taking in suggestions from players over the years, what really bothers them or prevents them from picking them up even for fun, making tweaks to gameplay, adding meaningful depth, but not changing the core of the game. I think the most far out idea we have is adding highly reactionable overheads to break block hogs, similar to SF.

As for MK9, there are plenty of players who legit prefer it over MKX. I don't really have an opinion on it other than, MKX has way too much going on, overkill everything. MK11 is going to be interesting.
 

M2Dave

Zoning Master
One other thing though, and I know this is getting off topic, but as it pertains to UMK3 being romanticized. I wouldn't say it hasn't aged well, it's just that it is VERY old in general and that is a turn off to some. You show random people high level UMK3 and it's mindblowing to them. There are 2, maybe 3 components of the UMK3 gameplay, and 2D in general, that absolutely make them rough, but when it comes to character control, UMK3 is still to this day, better than any other MK game, and I say that without hyperbole. You have the most freedom to move in that game with the most sensible dashing mechanic and limitations applied on it. If I'd add one universal mechanic to it, it would be a back dash. Sub-zero's ice clone acts sort of like one, or a short jump, and it's super useful for that alone.

The overall shallowness of the 2D gameplay is really what hurts them the most, and this makes a couple of those basic aspects hard to deal with. This is part of the reason why we started hacking the games, because some of us acknowledge that the simplicity can make them feel dated and there's no room to grow, but I think this applies way more to MKII. Taking in suggestions from players over the years, what really bothers them or prevents them from picking them up even for fun, making tweaks to gameplay, adding meaningful depth, but not changing the core of the game. I think the most far out idea we have is adding highly reactionable overheads to break block hogs, similar to SF.

As for MK9, there are plenty of players who legit prefer it over MKX. I don't really have an opinion on it other than, MKX has way too much going on, overkill everything. MK11 is going to be interesting.
I am not adequately knowledgeable to discuss Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, especially not with you. The only thing I can state is fighting games that were designed a decade or two ago would not be well-received by today's fighting game community, who would condemn even the most memorable fighting games, such as Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Third Strike, and Tekken Tag Tournament 1, for the lack of balance alone. I assume the same is accurate for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 too. The mere fact that you have to hack the game, which some people also attempted to do with Mortal Kombat 9, means the time has come to move on and play modern fighting games.
 

STORMS

Co-founder
Founder
Premium Supporter
I am not adequately knowledgeable to discuss Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, especially not with you. The only thing I can state is fighting games that were designed a decade or two ago would not be well-received by today's fighting game community, who would condemn even the most memorable fighting games, such as Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Third Strike, and Tekken Tag Tournament 1, for the lack of balance alone. I assume the same is accurate for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 too. The mere fact that you have to hack the game, which some people also attempted to do with Mortal Kombat 9, means the time has come to move on and play modern fighting games.
Okay... but what about patches in any fighting game? What's the difference between patches coming down for MK9 (for example) and those who keep making changes (for the better) for UMK3?

The only reason UMK3 isn't played by many is because it is not easy to "just play" (others and others online, etc). Using MAME is a royal pain... making sure you have the same version, etc..
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
I am not adequately knowledgeable to discuss Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, especially not with you. The only thing I can state is fighting games that were designed a decade or two ago would not be well-received by today's fighting game community, who would condemn even the most memorable fighting games, such as Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Third Strike, and Tekken Tag Tournament 1, for the lack of balance alone. I assume the same is accurate for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 too. The mere fact that you have to hack the game, which some people also attempted to do with Mortal Kombat 9, means the time has come to move on and play modern fighting games.
When UMK3 came out for XBLA back in 2006, it was very much accepted and the playerbase for the game was actually quite large. Considering it was a 15 year old game or so at the time, having 200,000+ players on that game was quite remarkable. This was not only the first time I played any MK game competitively, it was my first fighting game I played competitively. Yes, of course this was before the modern NRS era (it was also before the FG boom caused by SF4), but I’d imagine it would be similarly received if it got a re-release on current gen consoles. Especially if the netcode was great.

The biggest issue with UMK3 is accessibility. The main problem is that it’s a headache to actually get access to the game. You have to either use a PS3/360 to play a terrible port of it with MKAK, play it on MAME which is tough to navigate for a lot of people, or even worse, have to find someone willing to give you their account on the 360 who has the 2006 version of the game which is no longer available for download/purchase in the stores. It, along with every other midway game, was taken off the marketplace once Midway went bottoms up.

It’s a shame classic MK’s don’t get the Capcom treatment. Classic SF fans are pretty spoiled, especially in comparison.
 

M2Dave

Zoning Master
Okay... but what about patches in any fighting game? What's the difference between patches coming down for MK9 (for example) and those who keep making changes (for the better) for UMK3?
Contemporary fighting games are patched by video game companies which have authority over communities. A single individual or a group of individuals has limited authority and influence. In other words, what I consider balanced zoning may not coincide with your definition of balanced zoning. However, when NRS releases a patch, the patched game will be the official version of the game that all players will ultimately play.

Besides, old fighting games do not grow or create scenes as much as new ones do. Young players want to play brand new fighting games, not a decade old ones.

I am not against playing old fighting games. But as I keep stating, they have not aged well whatsoever. In retrospect, they are severely lacking in quality. I know at least Mortal Kombat 9 is, which is the game that I am the most familiar with.
 

Gerchap

Noob
The only reason UMK3 isn't played by many is because it is not easy to "just play" (others and others online, etc). Using MAME is a royal pain... making sure you have the same version, etc..
I agree, the franchise should do something to get these old games playable online and compatible with the newer consoles. I mean Halo 2 is a till playable and there are tons of people playing in the regular basis, the biggest problem is that NRS does not care about these tittles.
 
Last edited:

M2Dave

Zoning Master
The following players have been chosen as the participants for the E-League event. They have yet to be listed on the official website.

- Big D
- Dragon
- Honey Bee
- Ketchup and Mustard
- KillerXinok
- Llumiya
- MYM ALKapone
- REO
- Scar
- TrU3Ta1ent
- Unroolie

Thank you for voting.

My source is Honey Bee. Please watch the video below.

 

ArcticTabasco

I wish I knew Kung Fu.
I think the top influencers are whoever are the top players in the tournament scene (so typically Sonicfox is among them), because they come up with the strategies, details and combos that usually trickle down to us lowly mortals.

Now, in terms of whose content (be it YouTube, written guides or anything else) I've found most interesting and useful, I like Ketchup & Mustard, Tom Brady and Sajam. But I feel that a large part of what they do is distill the characters, strategies and current meta from the whole scene, include their own findings and break it down for us rather than "dictating" how certain characters should be played and why. There's certainly varying degrees to this on a case by case basis, usually regarding characters they each like. For example Tom Brady has always been the Sub-Zero scientist and his breakdown of MK9 was the first guide I used back then. So guys like these are the biggest influencers in the sense that their content reach a lot of people and thus influence how the game is played. But then again would Kitana have been played like she was in MKX if Sonicfox hadn't played her in tournament? I remember there being this collective "Oooooh, that's what you're supposed to do with her" feeling in the community when he did that.